


Bittersweet

by Luana Araceli (Luana_Araceli)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Worlds, Demons, Fantasy, Gen, Mind Bonds, Original Characters - Freeform, Original work - Freeform, Swords
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-18
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-12-16 19:22:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11835375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luana_Araceli/pseuds/Luana%20Araceli





	1. Chapter 1

_Sunfire’s_ hilt gleamed bright silver as the sun rose across the barren desert. She shifted the dune that had pooled around her during the night’s sandstorm, freeing her blade.

The magic she’d sensed in the dark grew stronger. Two demon armies headed towards her as she waited, sick with dread and anticipation. Perhaps this time she’d find him, the demon who could wield her without losing his mind.

But while she had hope, it was slim. After three million years of life, _Sunfire_ knew what they all called her. _Bittersweet,_ the poison sword. None of them knew her real name. None of them had ever lasted long enough to find out.

Perhaps she just hadn’t found the right warrior. Even though she knew there was truth to that, thinking it caused her pain. Because it came with a slight hope tinged by a past full of the bitter reality of constant rejection.

Six hundred million demons had come to her to test their strength, to see if they could become the partner she sought so desperately. But only fifteen million demons had possessed the strength to wield her without turning into shrapnel when they touched her.

And of those fifteen million, none of them had been able to bear her presence for more than a hundred years. _Sunfire_ was lonely and desperate for a partner. But as more time passed, the more she became convinced that there was no one able to wield her.

Still, she clung to hope. Her name was _Sunfire,_ after all. And names were powerful things. _He_ hadn’t given her a weak name when he forged her and she wouldn’t do him a disservice by giving into loneliness. No, she would shine on like the sun she was named for, and she would wait. Eventually, the right warrior had to come along. And she would wait, even if that meant waiting millions of years.

Today held another chance for her to find a wielder. The Eastlands and Westlands were at war again and they were fighting over _her._ Though they called her _Bittersweet,_ _Sunfire_ knew the two Kings were determined to find her and claim them as their own. And each of them were convinced she was hidden in the others’ land.

But _Sunfire_ wasn’t hidden. She’d never hidden. Her sister and brother had already claimed a wielder and were content to keep out of the war being fought over her. It was through her brother, _Iceterror,_ _Sunfire_ had learned about this war.

He was always willing to share information with her, because he had no reason to fear her offensive power. It was his defensive power that kept the Southlands safe from invasion and his wielder safe from any potential harm.

_Mindblinder,_ their sister, wasn’t someone she got along with well. The two of them contained opposing powers and that made them uneasy of the other. Because of that, they kept out of each other’s business as much as possible.

Though all three of them were swords, they were family. Neither _Iceterror_ nor _Mindblinder_ would turn on her; the three of them had made a pact to keep from exchanging blows with the other.

Judging by the magical signatures of the two armies, they would arrive at _Sunfire’s_ location at noon. She would wait until there was a clear winner and then approach that army’s general and get him to take her to the King. Unless the general wanted her for himself, of course. If that happened, she would partner with the general and make _him_ the new King.

_Sunfire_ gave a mental shrug. It didn’t matter to her who won. All she cared about was finding a new person to use her the way a sword was meant to be used.

The air shifted around her and she sensed the presence of a god coming towards her from the south. There were few gods who visited the demon world, but the few who did were powerful. _Sunfire_ had entertained the idea of being wielded by a god once or twice, but their power signatures were too different. While she was a powerful sword, able to cut through the fabric of reality itself, she didn’t have the power to weave her strength with the strength of a god.

An hour passed before the god got close enough for _Sunfire_ to recognize the magical signature. Helmi. One of the two goddesses in a group of five gods that were willing to walk the demon world.

_Sunfire_ watched Helmi as she approached. The goddess was dressed in a nylon outfit of a light yellow color, using a straw hat to shield her eyes and head from the burning sun, with trail runners on her feet. It always amused _Sunfire_ how much trouble the gods went through to dress appropriately for their surroundings when they were impervious to weather.

Helmi spotted _Sunfire_ and _blinked_ to a spot beside her. “What are you doing?” she asked, sitting cross-legged on the sand.

_Sunfire_ projected herself into Helmi’s mind. _I am waiting for the war to end so that I may find a new wielder._

“Why don’t you leave them to kill each other? You know you aren’t going to find a proper wielder amongst them. With the amount of demon blood you’ve absorbed, you have the same amount of power as I do.”

_That may be the case, but I cannot exercise my power without a wielder through which to channel it._

“And you can tell that there are none amongst them with the strength to wield you.”

_Sunfire_ was silent. Helmi was right. None of the demons in the approaching armies had the strength to wield her for more than fifty years, at best. _What would you suggest I do, then? I need a wielder._

“Does it have to be a demon?” Helmi asked. “There are plenty of gods around who would love to have the power you could provide them with.”

_Sunfire_ smiled sadly in Helmi’s mind. _My power is demonic in origin, while the gods have divine power. The two are incompatible, despite the similarity in our strength. Knowing that, what choice do I have but to wait for the demon capable of wielding me?_

“What about going to the human world?” Helmi asked. “There are some humans who are able to handle demonic and divine power. Wouldn’t that be a better use of your time?”

_Humans do not live long enough to make the trip worthwhile. None of them live over a hundred and twenty years and I am seeking a partner who can stay with me for the length of my own life. It’s impossible._

“Perhaps,” Helmi said. She stood up, sand falling from her lap. “But there are half-demons walking in the human world right now with no knowledge of their demonic heritage. After three million years of searching this world, don’t you think it’s time to look somewhere else?”

_Sunfire_ watched Helmi walk away, weighing the question in her own mind. Should she stay here and hope that one of the two Kings held the strength to wield her or should she take her chances with the unknown and try and find a wielder in the human world?

When the two armies clashed that afternoon, _Sunfire_ was gone.  


	2. Chapter One

 

_ “It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”  _

_ ~Frederick Douglass _

Five million years. Five  _ million  _ years. Sunfire’s exasperation threatened to consume her. While she had expected the human world to be different than Rikal, she hadn’t expected this. This  _ weakness.  _ In Rikal, the sun’s power never faltered. Never. Even deep underground, the sun on Rikal lent Sunfire the strength she needed to survive. 

But the human world - what  _ was  _ this? When Sunfire cut the fabrication that separated Rikal and the human world, she had expected to emerge into a landscape identical to Rikal’s. But the human world was nothing like Rikal, where the shifting sand burned the feet of the demons that dared to travel during high noon, where the boundaries between the four kingdoms were visible only when the sands changed shades, and the blue light from the sun reflected off the sands, tinging the sky a deep violet. In the human world, the sky was blue, the ground green and brown and red and  _ what were those colors?  _ Sunfire had never seen such vibrancy. If the situation at hand wasn’t so urgent, she could relax for the next few thousand years, enjoying the new colors. 

But the miscalculation she’d made when she entered the human world could prove to be her undoing. The yellow sun in this world was weak. Paltry, in fact. And Sunfire needed the heat of a sun in order to remain conscious, to remain alive. That was how she’d been forged. Without heat, she was nothing. Forged immortal, the weak sun in the human world threatened to strip away her invulnerability. Truly, though, the sun in the human world was strong  _ enough _ for Sunfire to retain her strength. If only she were  _ in _ the sun. And that was the miscalculation. 

Instead of sending a probing tendril of thought between Rikal and the human world, her excitement about potentially finding a new wielder had overwhelmed her. Blinded her to the dangers. The problem Sunfire currently faced was her location because she had slipped through the portal from Rikal into an area devoid of sun. And now, as she lay fully exposed on whatever type of ground this  _ was,  _ Sunfire feared dying. 

The concept of death was foreign to her, but the loss of power wasn’t. Fifteen million demons had attempted to bond with her, to become her wielder, and all fifteen million of them had died because they lacked power. But the deaths of those demons hadn’t affected Sunfire. None of them had been strong enough to partner with her, and she could not tolerate incompetence. When those demons died, they combusted into millions of fragments that the sands quickly sucked down into their depths. But Sunfire had felt nothing but contempt for them - she despised those demons for their inability to handle her power. 

Up until today, Sunfire had hated them. She’d seen them as intolerable whiners thirsting for the quick acquisition of someone else’s power. As bums. If she were honest with herself - and she made it a policy to be honest - most of them  _ were  _ power bums. But maybe some of them had been in the position she found herself in now. Because Sunfire  _ was _ powerful. The knowledge of her own power and her easy admittance to it didn’t come from arrogance - facts were facts. Sunfire’s siblings,  _ Mindblinder  _ and  _ Iceterror, _ were the only creatures in Rikal that matched Sunfire in terms of power. Right now, though, Sunfire’s power was ebbing. 

Sunfire knew her lack of foresight was responsible for her current predicament, but the knowledge didn’t keep her from wishing that her hilt lay a centimeter more to the left. Because that’s how close she was to the sun. A centimeter would determine her fate. If she lived or died. And yes, she was beginning to feel desperate. Because even though Sunfire came through the portal to the human world three weeks ago, she had yet to see a single human. 

Wherever it was Sunfire had come out in the human world, the place was deserted. Under normal circumstances, Sunfire preferred empty wastelands. But these circumstances weren’t normal. She needed a human to come by, to see her, to pick her up - to attempt to wield her. Because if that didn’t happen soon, her power would deplete itself. Judging by the feel of it, she had a few more days, at best a full week, before she would have nothing left. No power. No power meant no life. 

The centimeter separating Sunfire from the shade she was in and the direct exposure to the sun she needed had drained her of the ability to move as soon as she’d crossed into the human world. Even gathering the full strength she had remaining, the most Sunfire would be able to manage was compel one human to notice her. One human within five meters. She couldn’t even manage the strength to scan the area to see if any humans were around. For the first time in her life, Sunfire felt the bitter taste of despair.

And then she heard the sound of a pair of boots moving on top of rock. Rock? There was rock in this world, too? For a brief second, Sunfire let her mind wander. Was the rock here the same as in Rikal? Did the human world possess the same type of black obsidian mountains found in her homeworld?  _ No, stop. There’s a human nearby. I don’t have time to be distracted. Not if I want to survive.  _

The boots and their owner came into view, and Sunfire was glad that her forger had inlaid the hilt with a small crystal for her to use as eyes. Because if this was what a human looked like, then maybe Helmi’s advice about finding a wielder in the human world would prove to be more than an idle suggestion. 

The creature -- _ No. The human. Call it what it is --  _ stood at four feet in height. Its limbs were slender and it had a small tuft of fur at the top of its body. The flush pale pink skin was otherwise sparsely haired and the creature wore unrecognizable fabrics over its torso - similar to a demon’s torso - and its lower half. Two eyes were squished into the head - was that its head? Some demons had eyes on their feet, so Sunfire wasn’t sure if this human walked upside down or if the eyes were on the head, but that wasn’t important - she’d found a human. 

The creature let out a huff of air and sat down hard on the ground. “Good,” the creature said. “I’ve lost them.” 

When the creature spoke, relief washed through Sunfire. She’d feared humans wouldn’t speak the same languages as gods and demons did, but it seemed that fear, at least, was unfounded. So had she landed in the North of this world? Because in Rikal, only the Northern Kingdom spoke English. Sunfire was confused. Even if Rikal and the human world were different, she should have landed in the same portion of the world. Since Sunfire had left the Southern Kingdom of Rikal, she should have landed in the Southern part of the human world. There was sure to be a simple explanation for the difference, but Sunfire couldn’t think of what that explanation might be. 

More importantly, who was the “they?” this creature spoke of? And was this human a male or female? How was she supposed to tell the difference? Or were humans unisex? There was so much Sunfire didn’t know about this world. 

“Crap,” the human said. “They found me after all.” 

Three more humans entered the area. Each of them were between four to five feet tall. Two of them had brown fur tufts, the third a black fur tuft. Sunfire didn’t know how to tell them apart, really, but one of the brown fur tufts (the first human had a red fur tuft) was taller than the other, so she decided to distinguish them through their tuft colors. At least until she knew the proper way to go about telling the difference. 

Black fur-tuft took a step towards red fur-tuft. “Jonah, did you really think you could hide from us in here? We all know you have a crush on the owner.” 

Red fur-tuft - Was Jonah its name? - stood. Well, that answered Sunfire’s question about where the humans’ feet were located. “Go away, Brett.” 

Black fur-tuft - Brett? - contorted its face into an expression Sunfire didn’t recognize before it spoke. “You think we’re going to let a faggot like you live? Armin, you brought the brass knuckles, right?” 

The color of Jonah’s face went from pale pink to a pasty white. So that’s what fear looked like on a human. Sunfire considered interfering - after all, the pasty human was being forced to confront 3 opponents. But she didn’t know if such confrontations were common in the human world - maybe this Jonah human was an opponent that required a three-on-one confrontation. For now, Sunfire would observe. 

“Of course I did, Brett. We can’t have this fucking faggot stinking up our school,” Armin said. So Armin was the short brown fur-tuft human. Armin used one of its arms to reach behind it and pull out a weapon that gleamed in the sun. 

At the sun’s gleam, Sunfire almost lost her grip on her sanity. She struggled to keep her desperation to find a human wielder,  before her power completely dried up, at bay. 

Jonah trembled. “Guys, you don’t need to do this.” 

_ Oh. So they’re male. Good to know.  _

Jonah backed up a step, then stopped. He held out his arms toward the only other human who had yet to speak - the tall brown fur-tuft. “Greg, please,” he said, voice soft. “Don’t let them do this.” 

Brett walked to where Jonah stood and swung his fist at the red fur-tuft’s face. Jonah ducked, rolling out of the way, but stumbled as he started to stand back up. A stumble that Brett took advantage of as he pushed Jonah, hard, into the ground. He placed a hand on the back of Jonah’s head and shoved the red fur-tuft’s face into the ground, using a knee to pin the other human in place. 

“Don’t you fucking dare try to use Greg’s kindness to get out of the beating we’re about to give you, you fucking faggot,” Brett snarled. “It’s bad enough that you want to have sex with guys without you trying to convert Greg.” 

Sunfire’s mind boggled. That’s what this was about? The three humans ganging up on Jonah wanted to kill him because he liked sleeping with his own gender? What the hell was this? Did humans really care about the gender other humans slept with? On Rikal, the only sexual relationships condemned were the ones between demons and humans. It had never even occurred to Sunfire, or any other demon, to be concerned about the physical attributes a partner possessed. Granted, Sunfire was a sword and sexual relationships didn’t  _ happen,  _ but she remembered, vaguely, what life had been like  _ before _ she’d been made a sword. And gender had  _ never _ been in a factor in any of those relationships. 

Jonah managed to turn his head to the side and stutter out, “Greg’s gay. I don’t have to convert him.” 

Armin joined Brett then and delivered a solid punch to Jonah’s jaw. “Say something like that again,” he hissed. “I dare you.” 

“Go ahead,” Brett said. “Say something else about Greg, Jonah. Give us an excuse to kill you.” 

Fear passed through Jonah’s eyes. He kept silent. 

“That’s what I thought,” Brett said. “Fucking pussy. Armin, the knuckles!” 

Armin handed the weapon over to Brett who slid it onto his hand. Brett pulled Jonah’s head back and spat in the guy’s eye. Pinned down under Brett’s knee, Jonah had no choice but to lay there and take whatever the other humans chose to inflict on him. Without warning, Brett hauled back his fist and smashed the weapon into Jonah’s jaw. 

Jonah screamed. The raw terror and pain in that scream almost pulled Sunfire into Jonah’s mind, but she resisted the pull. If she went to him now, he would die. Adjusting to her presence would be impossible. And if he didn’t die in this fight, maybe she would test him out as a wielder. But maybe not - the ability to fight against multiple assailants was one her wielder needed to possess. 

Greg spoke for the first time. “Maybe we should stop now,” he said, voice soft. 

Angry, Brett turned to him. “Greg, he called you a faggot. He insulted you. No one insults one of us and gets away with it.” 

Greg nodded. “I know, Brett. But you broke his jaw. That’s enough, right? Come on, let’s go home.” 

Armin scowled. “Fuck, Greg. Is the pussy here right about you? Is that why you want to stop?” 

Greg trained a hard look on Armin, who stepped back and mumbled an apology. Wordlessly, Greg stepped forward and held out a hand to Brett. Brett handed the brass knuckles over. Crouching in front of Jonah, Greg pressed a hand against the broken jaw. “It hurts, yeah?” he asked, voice low. 

Jonah managed to nod. “Please,” he rasped. “Help me.” 

Greg gave a nod of his own, but the only person the nod fooled was Jonah. Because Greg had been distracting Jonah by talking to him so that Brett could find a better weapon. A killing weapon. The nod was the signal for Brett to deliver the final blow. But right as Brett began to swing the weapon, a new human - a good six feet tall - entered the area and caught the weapon on the downswing. 

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing on my property?” the new human asked. He wrenched the weapon out of Brett’s hands and threw it out of easy reach. 

“Fuck,” Brett said. He pointed at Armin, an accusing look in his eye. “Armin, you were supposed to be watching out for this fucker. Some look-out you are.” 

“Make me ask again,” the new human said, voice low and dangerous. “And I’ll give the three of you injuries that match the one you gave Jonah.” 

Greg spoke then. “You can’t do that, Dusty. We’re under sixteen, so if you touch us, you go to jail.” 

Dusty snorted. “You think because you’re kids, the law will protect you from me?” Before anyone had time to react, Dusty snaked out both of his hands and locked one around Greg’s wrist and the other around Brett’s wrist. And then he started to squeeze. 

“Fuck! Stop!” Brett tried to pull his wrist out of Dusty’s grip, but failed. 

“These are the hands you used to bash Jonah’s face with, yeah?” Dusty asked, tightening his grip. 

Greg nodded, hiding his pain. 

“We were just trying to teach the faggot a lesson,” Brett said. “It ain’t right, what he is.” 

“Well, I don’t give a shit what you were doing,” Dusty said. “You come onto my property, attempt to kill one of my friends, and then try to threaten me with the law because you have the luck to be minors?” The broad shoulders of his torso shook with the effort it took him to contain his rage. Dusty took a deep breath. Then, without warning, he forced Brett and Greg’s wrists up and back, creating an unmistakable  _ pop _ when the bones broke. When the two of them tried to pull away from the pain - Dusty still had their wrists in his hands - Dusty spoke. “If you were men, and not children, neither one of you would have stories about the mean man who broke your wrist to run home to tell mommy. And in case you get any funny ideas about me breaking any laws, you’re the ones trespassing on my property. I could kill you without breaking a sweat, so think of that before you try and come back here with the law on your side.” 

With that said, he released Greg and Brett’s wrists, and the two of them hurried out of the area as fast as they could with broken wrists. Armin followed them. 

Dusty collapsed on the ground next to Jonah. “Fuck, Jonah, are you alright?” Dusty pulled the trembling young man into his lap.”Shh, I’ll get Darren out here to fix you up. You might want to stay here until that jaw heals up.” 

Jonah grunted. “Thanks,” he rasped, then winced. “Ice?” 

“Yeah. Here, let’s move to the house. I’ll be able to treat your injuries better there.” 

Sunfire was at her limit - she jumped blindly, out of desperation, needing to connect with one of the humans. When she did, Dusty paused and looked down. “Damn, it’s a good thing those kids didn’t realize there was a sword laying down here.” He picked the sword up. “Better take this in the house, too, just in case.” 

Sunfire crowed in triumph. Finally! As Dusty picked her up, the sun’s power flooded through her, and she allowed herself to relax for the first time in three weeks.  _ Safe,  _ she thought.  _ I’m finally safe.  _ If she’d been human, she would have burst into tears. 


	3. Chapter Two

_ “The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls the chaos, both his own and the enemies.”  _

_ ~Napoleon Bonaparte _

As a sword-embodied consciousness, Sunfire had to bond with a wielder in order to access the true depth of her power. Alone, she had enough power to teleport herself across the world, to compel those that came near her to pick her up and discover whether they had the capacity to wield her, and she could tear the fabric separating worlds twice. Granted, to have access to that much power, she needed to be on Rikal. 

In the human world, Sunfire’s power on her own was greatly diminished. In the dim light the humans referred to as electricity, she found that she could teleport no more than three feet in any direction. And any teleportation she performed exhausted her for hours. There was no way she had enough power for the return trip to Rikal, so Sunfire found herself facing the only choice left: she had to force Dusty to bond with her. 

Compelling him to pick her up had been the first step, but to properly bond with him, Sunfire needed access to his mind. And the only way she was going to get access to his mind was if he  _ used _ her. That was the point of initiation on the wielder’s part - until the wielder attempted to use her in battle, Sunfire was nothing more than the sword she inhabited. 

Getting Dusty to  _ use  _ that sword was proving to be an impossible task. Sure, Sunfire could compel him to pick her up, but with no one to fight, the human would get suspicious. After all, why would he pick up a sword with no opponents to face? While reason kept her from acting rashly, Sunfire longed to throw herself across the room into the man’s hands and be used. Not because the human held any true appeal to her as a wielder, but because a wielder was required for her to gain full access to her powers. 

Powers she missed desperately. In Rikal, every demon wanted to get their hands on her. Wanted to prove themselves worthy to wield her. Wanted her power. Because Sunfire’s offensive power was matched only by the defensive power of Iceterror, her brother sword. With the sun’s fire, she could burn away the lies of a million demons and leave their flesh intact. Sunfire’s power was the ability to strip illusions from the world, an ability that often left chaos in its wake. 

And Sunfire longed for her powers, even though no wielder had ever been found that could master them. The feeble attempts demons had made to use her powers had resulted in their deaths and the deaths of all the people they loved. Because that was the price of wielding Sunfire - the wielder acquired the inability to tolerate lies and illusions as soon as the power of Sunfire awakened within him. When confronted with a lie for the first time after gaining Sunfire’s power, most of her previous wielders had gone crazy. They’d gone on a rampage, killing all of their family members and anyone who dared to speak a lie. Because of this, Sunfire was believed to be a cursed sword. A powerful sword, to be sure, but a sword that turned its wielders into kinkillers. Even in the demon world, killing kin was one of the most despicable acts a person could perform. 

But that didn’t keep demons from seeking Sunfire out. No, power was too much of an incentive. And truthfully, Sunfire didn’t require her wielders to become kinkillers. That wasn’t the price she exacted for using her. No, her price was simple: don’t lie and don’t let others lie. That didn’t mean the wielder had to kill the liars - in fact, Sunfire’s power only lent itself to a killing rage when the wielder wasn’t strong enough to handle the full force of it. 

In a true wielder’s hands, Sunfire’s power would burn away the illusions, would destroy the lies that people built for themselves. Hers was the power of exposure, and a true wielder would find himself unable to speak anything but the truth and also be unable to point out the falsehoods spoken by the people around him. He would destroy illusions, create rifts, and that was why Sunfire’s power was an offensive rather than a defensive power. Her wielder would destroy the fake realities people immersed themselves within, but he wouldn’t go on a murderous rampage. Well, a true wielder wouldn’t. 

But true wielders were hard to come by. In Rikal, Sunfire had learned to accept subpar wielders because she needed access to her power. Yes, the price of that power was that millions of demons lost their lives as subpar wielders turned into kinkillers, but Sunfire didn’t hold herself responsible for those deaths. Her wielders weren’t strong enough - instead of controlling her power, the power controlled them. She was a tool - the only person responsible for the use to which she was put was the wielder. 

At least, that’s how she kept the guilt at bay. After all, she had a conscience. She knew that those deaths were her fault, as well, but she acknowledged that only because her powers forced her to - she could not lie to herself. But it was also true that she was a tool - she was a sword - so the guilt she felt was muted. As a sword, especially one with a conscious presence, she knew better than anyone that swords  _ needed _ to be used. Weapons were created to be used, and, as a sword, she thirsted for a wielder to use her. So it was her very nature that led her to seek out wielders, even subpar wielders, because she was a weapon. Weapons had no true power without a wielder, and Sunfire was no exception to that rule. 

Sure, when she had a wielder, her power was unimaginably vast, but right now, she didn’t have a wielder. And the human, Dusty, who she’d began to bond with, seemed to have absolutely no interest in her. Of course, the fact that Dusty lived in an area that seemed to be almost completely devoid of other humans may have been a factor. At least, that’s what Sunfire hoped was the reason for his lack of interest. 

If he truly had no interest, well, Sunfire had no idea what she would do. Because the bond, once initiated, had to be either initiated in turn or completely repudiated before she could seek a new wielder. And right now, Dusty had no idea that she’d initiated a bond with him. Until he attempted to use her, he would remain unaware of her presence, and Sunfire could not compel him to use her in order to initiate the bond on his end. She could compel him to pick her up, but not to use her - the restrictions of the bond existed for her safety and the safety of her wielder, but right now, those restrictions chafed. 


End file.
